Sarkozy and Volapük
The Conlanging Librarian just came across an interesting article from March 2010 from France24. It appears French president Nicolas Sarkozy was talking about a draft of the United Nations climate summit agreement when he said it had a text “similar to volapuk.” The article left out the umlaut. It has a nice brief history of the language as well as a lengthy quote. Fredolös! (I think that’s Volapük for “Enjoy!” as best as I can determine. Apologies to all the Volapükists out there if it’s not.)
The Conlanger’s Library…now with e-mail
A new email address has finally been implemented for The Conlanger’s Library: library – at – conlang – dot – org. Readers can use this email address to contact the Conlanging Librarian to suggest new materials for inclusion in the library or to ask questions about existing materials.
LCK in Print!
Mark Rosenfelder, aka Zompist, has provided one of the most helpful and comprehensive introductions to conlanging on his web site for “more than a decade”: The Language Construction Kit (LCK). Now, Mark goes one better and has created a print version of the LCK which is “four times larger” than its online counterpart. The book’s Table of Contents and an FAQ can be viewed here and is available for purchase at Amazon.com. (For a previous post on Zompist here at The Conlanging Librarian blog, click here.)
Change to TCL Homepage
A box for Most Recent Updates has been made to the homepage of The Library. The idea is to provide a quick and easy way of looking at “new stuff” on the homepage, while at the same time providing some context within this blog for those items. The current “Updates” include:
- New quotation from L. Sprague de Camp
- New page dedicated to David J. Peterson’s Dothraki for HBO
- New educational materials page
- Parkvall’s Limits of Language added to Books
…plus, we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of this blog. Hmmm…we’ll have to think of some way to celebrate.
Paul Frommer Interview
The LCS has posted an interview with Na’vi creator Paul Frommer conducted by David J. Peterson and Sylvia Sotomayor. Frommer provides some great stories about how he created Na’vi and what it’s like working on a major movie. Nice job, David and Sylvia!
Hash yer ray nesi?
The secret is out! The LCS‘s own David J. Peterson has been chosen by HBO to create the Dothraki language for the upcoming Game of Thrones TV series. There has been plenty of buzz about the announcement; however, one of the coolest thing so far has been to see people attempt to use the snippets of Dothraki publicized so far in conversational ways, for example, here (“Read the release to get caught up on all the athastokhdeveshizaroon”) and here (“Hash yer ray nesi?”). There is no doubt as more about the language becomes widespread, people will be conversing like the horsemen with athjahakar.
Oh, and by the way, the photo is not of David J. Peterson. That’s Jason Momoa, cast to play the horse-lord himself, Khal Drogo. Gotta love Momoa’s jahak.
I couldn’t resist throwing another word in there. 🙂
Conlangs in Space
No, this post is not about Klingon or Na'vi. The Conlanging Librarian recently discovered that Esperanto appears to be the first conlang in space. The Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä discovered and named two asteroids: 1421 Esperanto on March 18, 1936, and 1462 Zamenhof on Feb. 6, 1938. Väisälä, in addition to being a distinguished astronomer, was also an enthusiastic advocate of Esperanto. He himself is commemorated by having a crater named after him on the Moon.
Limits of Language
A new Book has been added to The Library:
Limits of Language by Mikael Parkvall of Stockholm University. The book is an entertaining collection of trivia, facts, and information on language, linguistics, and languages. The calendar is also an interesting collection of important dates for the field. Enjoy!
Conlanging Educational Resources
Have you ever wanted to share your love of conlanging with a group in a more-or-less formal classroom setting? Have you ever wanted to give a presentation on the art and science of conlanging? The Conlanger’s Library can now help! The Education page at the Library contains materials you can use to create a PowerPoint presentation, handouts, and also includes inspirational videos. Materials there have been created by Nathan Richardson, Sai Emrys, Sheri Beth Wells-Jensen, and yours truly. If you have any items from formal classes which you have taught or presentations which you have given and you’d like to share them with the community, email lcs (at) conlang (dot) org.
Recent Additions
The Conlanging Librarian has been busy adding new items to the Library:
- A new book has been added to Books (Science Fiction): Years in the Making: The Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp.
- Several new articles and a video (from Arika’s appearance at Geeking Out) have been added to the Press Coverage of Arika Okrent and her popular book.
- And, finally, a new article by Arika Okrent herself that appeared at Slate.com about Paul Frommer’s Na’vi. Find this one in the Press Coverage of Dr. Frommer and his language of Pandora.
Enjoy!